Queequeg

In Herman Melville's Moby-Dick,Captain Ahab sets himself on a quest to find and kill the White Whale. His obsession leads to his own destruction and the death of nearly all his crew. Matt Kish also has a quest. Fortunately, this one is likely to be less destructive to himself and his colleagues. (Which is a good thing, as we both work at the same library!) He has set out to create an original piece of art, an illustration on found paper, for each page of this monumental tome.

I'm working my way through the whole book in order, beginning with page 1 and ending with page 552. I'm not working ahead or jumping around to the pages I might like the most. If all goes well, I should complete this some time in March 2011. We'll see about that.

On page 20, we are introduced to the mysterious Queequeg. Initially, this harpooner from a fictional South Pacific island causes much consternation to our hero, Ishmael. Soon, however, they become fast friends.

Matt has rendered his Queequeg on a page from a discarded book that includes a map of some islands of the South Pacific and South China Sea.

Follow Matt's quest at his blog, One Drawing for Every Page of Moby-Dick

Read a recent interview with Matt on The New Yorker's Book Bench blog.

Thar' She Blows!



UPDATE 5/27: Here is another Moby-Dick/Queegueg map from Matt's gallery: